Budget Wedding? [No Flames Please]

DisneyFan06

<font color=magenta>I think I can pretty much draw
Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
2,904
Please, don't flame me. I am just posting a question that my DF asked me and I wasn't sure the exact answer. The question is rather strange and I hope I dont get any negative remarks. We are just new to planning weddings and such. :duck:

She wanted a Disney wedding badly but also wants a Disney honeymoon. However, because of budget, we can't do both. Therefore, she wants to know is if it is possible for us to get married somewhere on property without paying the fee. :rolleyes: Simply put, she wants to know if we can bring someone to marry us and they marry us anywhere on site. Is this possible? Couldn't we get in trouble for this? I wasn't sure how to respond, so I thought I would just ask here.

She said, by doing this, we could have our honeymoon onsite also. I am just confused and I dont want to give her the wrong answer.:headache: I dont want to make the happy bride :bride: go insane.

Also, we are looking at December of 2008.
 
You could always stay at All Stars or Pop Century and hope for an AP code.

Escape Weddings are $4000 to start.

Unfortunately, if you are found having your own ceremony on property you will be escorted out.


Look into Swan/Dolphin Weddings as they are more reasonably priced.
 
First off - congratulations on your engagement.

As for your question -

The official answer from DFTW is: if you choose to get married onsite without going through the proper channels (the Fairy Tale Weddings Department) and a CM spots you, your ceremony will be stopped.

Also, you may find it hard to find an officiant who would be willing to perform the ceremony as doing so would jeopardize their relationship with DFTW.

All that said, there have been reports of people having ceremonies in their rooms. I don't know if they are true or not, but in theory its an option. Personally, I wouldn't go that route.

Have you looked into getting married at the Swan and Dolphin? Or any of the other venues in Orlando?

Good luck!
 
You two basically answered my question. Thanks, the answer is simply no. Now, I have to break down and tell DF. :surfweb:
 

Best of luck to you!

If your fiance really wants the Disney Wedding & Honeymoon, you could always talk about putting it off for a little while to save money for the wedding/honeymoon of your dreams.

My fiance & I did this because of the money.
 
why don't you go on mouseweddings.com, they have info on the DTD resorts that host disney weddings!
 
The Hyatt Grand Cypress (which I can't believe doesn't have some kind of a FAQ, like the Swan/Dolphin) can be pretty cheap, especially when compared to Disney Weddings. For a fairly bare bones wedding, you get...


Intimate Wedding Package
Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress also offers special packages for our guests looking for a smaller, more intimate celebration, including:

* Beautiful two-tiered wedding cake to share with all your guests
* Toast with two bottles of sparkling champagne
* Deluxe accommodations for the bride and groom on the wedding night [NOTE - if you decide against this, your price will be $250 LESS]
* Choice of ceremony site from our many beautiful locations around the resort
* Bride’s nosegay bouquet and Groom’s boutonniere
* Professional Wedding Coordinator to assist you from planning through the final goodbye
* Officiate, to perform your ideal ceremony
* Uniformed Professional Server

Without the room, it's $1600, with the room, it's $1850, and they require a $500 deposit. The grounds really are beautiful, too. Much more so than the Swan/Dolphin, IMO.

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I noticed you're in Daytona Beach. That means Disney is basically a local wedding for you. That makes things a bit easier.

Start pricing out what you plan to do for a regular wedding, then compare it to the Disney wedding. First, you might be surprised. The Disney weddings can be comparable, at least until you start adding all the extras.

Now, or course, since it's a local wedding for you, the room blocks would probably start becoming an issue. A lot of times, you can get help filling those by advertising on the boards. But even so, a big Disney wedding could become a budget problem for you.

So, as some of the others have said, you could consider some alternatives. It depends a lot on what your DF's priorities for the wedding are. An Escape/Intimate wedding is a much cheaper alternative, and the annual pass that comes with it would probably be much more useful to you than most! The downside is you can only have up to 18 guests, depending on the location you choose. But a good way to handle this is to have an intimate, immediate family only ceremony with the included champagne and cake reception afterwards (which is only about 1/2 hour long), and follow that up with your own meal "reception" elsewhere for as many people as you would like. There are a number of good choices at DTD or at the resorts.

Or, as others have suggested, the Swan, the Dolphin, and other DTD resorts do weddings, and usually at much lower prices than the Disney weddings.

And for pictures, well, the only way to get the Magic Kingdom Portrait session is to have a Disney wedding of some sort. But other than that.... I think you'll find there's really nothing stopping you from getting pictures wherever you want around Disney, as long as you don't try to go into the parks themselves. The day of our wedding, I know Misty was a little surprised. She said her experience was that Disney security tended to not like wedding parties taking pictures and such around the outsides of the parks and on the Disney transportation, but they were nothing but friendly and helpful to us. I think there are several keys to that. One, we did not take the entire entourage - it was my DH, me, my MOH (sister), and her husband, plus Misty and her husband (who is also her assistant). So we weren't really blocking anyplace with a huge group of people. We never stopped at one place for TOO long. Me... well, I usually don't quit smiling, and I certainly didn't THAT day! :bride: :love: So I think there was just too much happiness for them to rain on it. And finally, there's the whole "acting like you know exactly what you're doing and like you're completely in charge" factor. My sis and I have been to Disney so much and know it reasonably well, so I knew exactly where I wanted to go, exactly where I was going, and never hesitated for a second. Makes you look like you belong there... like you might even be cast members. Knowing all the rules and following them without being told and knowing exactly where to go without help helps a lot.

Beyond that.... you could always do the ceremony at a church offsite, and do the reception at a DTD hotel. I don't know that doing that would be much cheaper than doing the whole package at DTD though.

Finally.... I don't suppose either of you are members of the military, Department of Defense employees, or either of your parents are military, DoD employees, or retired from either military or DoD are they? If you can answer yes to any of that, you might be able to do a Shades of Green wedding. I know you can if you or DF are members or retired from military or DoD. I think if your parents are either, you could still do it, but that part I'm not sure about. Shades of Green is on Disney property, and is essentially equivalent to a deluxe Disney resort, but it is a military facility. Sort of. It's kind of strange. I'm still not sure exactly how it works. I think it's semi-permanently leased to the government for the military. At any rate, they do weddings too, at a very reasonable rate is my understanding. Someone on the boards has done one there, and it's supposed to be lovely. I'm a DoD employee, and we stayed there a couple of days before the wedding, and the place is REALLY nice. I wanted my wedding at the Wedding Pavilion, so we didn't do the SoG wedding. But we did say that the next time we go to Disney, given the price we pay to stay there, we will SO stay at SoG. It's a luxury resort at the budget resort prices. If you qualify for it, and are interested, just go to shadesofgreen.org.

I hope out of all that, we can give you and your DF a little pixie dust! Believe me, most of us here do understand having to work with a limited budget.

pixiedust:
 
I don't know what you guys are looking for, but I remember reading somewhere that there's a chapel in Orlando where you can get married for $250. It's a quick in and out thing, with no cake or flowers, but when it comes down to it, it's about saying your vows to the one you love, not having elaborate center pieces and an 8 course meal. Before I met my boyfriend, I was kind of jaded when I thought of marriages and decided IF I was ever to get married (a permanent live-in boyfriend was more to my liking at the time), I was going to do in in Vegas at the drive-thru wedding chapel, with my mom and the groom's mom in the backseat of our rented convertible. :thumbsup2
 
If she really wants the DIsney wedding I say wait a little while and save up. We got engaged Halloween 2006 and we're figuring October of this year but realized we wouldn't be able to afford it yet. So we just pushed it back a year and now everything looks good. Just a thought.
 
Please stick around the board, and I'm sure we'll do our best to help you realise your dream!

What is your total budget for your wedding and honeymoon? It could help us in getting suggestions together, and I know a lot of the girls have some great ideas :)
 
I was in the same boat as you a few months ago. I wanted a Disney Wedding, but couldn't afford it through Disney Weddings, so I heard about the Swan and Dolphin and looked at that. Right now, having a wedding at the Swan is going to cost roughly $1700. This includes an officiant, 2 teir cake, sodas, planner, and location. If you book through Just Marry! the ones who do the Swan weddings, you can get the cost down. We knew we didn't really need limo service, we are making our own flowers, and my uncle and cousin are photographing the wedding. My total budget was around $3000. This is not including rooms for most nights, since my parents are DVC and we are using their points. However, we have gas money and other travel expenses you wouldn't need as much of. If you want to do the Swan package it's advertised at I think $2200, but like I said we got that down by doing ala carte things for much cheaper. If you would like more info on Swan weddings PM me and I'll try to answer some questions you might have. I hope this helps. Good Luck!
 
If you go with a Wedding Planner that is not part of Disney they are able to hold your ceremony and reception on Disney Property... Plus you will be saving a lot of money. I have been to 3 this past year... You can contact Orlando Dream Weddings in Orlando. They are really great... That is who my sister use to have her Disney Wedding... Good Luck!!:hippie:
 
I don't know how big of a wedding you plan, but have you thought about a Disney Cruise Line wedding :confused3

...... if you want a Disney wedding/honeymoon combined, this may not be a bad option for a relatively small wedding, especially if guests are likely to be willing to pay their own cruise fare. Just a thought . :confused3
 
I too desperately wanted a Disney wedding AND a Disney honeymoon. Ultimately, we decided the Disney honeymoon would be a better option for us (it's longer than the ceremony after all. lol)

Anyway, we had a small wedding in my hometown and have many, many Disney touches within the ceremony and reception. Much of our wedding and reception dinner music was Disney, we had a Disney cake topper, etc.

So perhaps you can compromise and have a Disney home wedding and then have a wonderful Disneymoon!

Sandy :)
 
If you go with a Wedding Planner that is not part of Disney they are able to hold your ceremony and reception on Disney Property... Plus you will be saving a lot of money. I have been to 3 this past year... You can contact Orlando Dream Weddings in Orlando. They are really great... That is who my sister use to have her Disney Wedding... Good Luck!!:hippie:

What are you talking about....??
 
If you go with a Wedding Planner that is not part of Disney they are able to hold your ceremony and reception on Disney Property... Plus you will be saving a lot of money. I have been to 3 this past year... You can contact Orlando Dream Weddings in Orlando. They are really great... That is who my sister use to have her Disney Wedding... Good Luck!!:hippie:

I'm fairly sure that this is misinformation.
 












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